Multiplatform Usability Testing

Bomarché carries out multiplatform usability testing

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Background

Bonmarché is the UK’s largest women’s-wear value retailer catering for women over 50 years. They pride themselves on offering quality stylish clothing with great value and in a wide range of sizes, along with outstanding customer service. As a true multi-channel retailer, Bonmarché operates through stores, mail order, telephone, online and with a catalogue.

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Brief

Bonmarché has experienced solid growth during the past 18 months with online sales +70% YOY. However, given the ethos of the company and potential growth from the target market, there was a desire and opportunity to improve the experience that the website provided. They also wanted to improve both the multiplatform experience and also the multichannel experience, taking into account store and catalogue.

The platform that Bonmarché use to deliver eCommerce is moving toward a responsive web design but it is not there yet. With an ongoing feedback mechanism in place on the website Bonmarché had received requests for improvements to the experience on smaller screens. As a result the Bonmarché team implemented website design changes in order to better support the tablet users and were keen to find out how well they worked.

The target customer base is women over 50 and Bonmarché has invested in detailed and accurate personas that allow them to very clearly identify and segment their customers. UX24/7 recruited 18 participants across an age range from 50 to nearly 80

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Methodology

We carried out usability testing across 3 days in viewing facilities in Leeds, close to Bonmarché’s offices which meant that team members and agency representatives were able to attend. Both tablet PC and laptop were used for testing which also involved the catalogue and discussion about the multichannel experience.

For Bonmarché we used our standard methodology and increased the participant numbers to cover all the key personas. We used picture in picture video capture technology for all platforms and included videos with our final report.
The

QUICK FACTS

Usability testing using real participants in a usability lab

Live website with catalogue and collect in store

Multiplatform testing on PC and tablet

Actionable recommendations

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Results

The usability testing identified a number of opportunities for improvement not only in the way the site performed on multiple platforms but also in supporting the multichannel user experience. There was only one “show stopper” the cause of which simply could not have been identified without detailed usability testing of this type. In general though the recommendations were about conversion optimisation and together should deliver significant ROI.

“We set out to discover whether the improvements we had made to the website for tablet PC had achieved their goals and ended up learning about a wide range of multichannel customer behaviour. The recommendations UX24/7 made provide a robust roadmap for further testing, and improvements and will have a significant material impact on our business”, said Claire Bywater, eCommerce Manager for Bonmarché.

Bonmarché continues to improve the experience they offer their customers and has retained UX24/7 to carry out monthly expert usability reviews as part of a continuous optimisation programme.

“…improvements will have a significant material impact on our business”